A Florida-based pastor has declared that he and his congregation will defy government orders to cease mass gatherings during the coronavirus outbreak, asserting that ‘The only time the church will close is when the Rapture is taking place’.
Pastor Rodney Howard-Browne, an evangelical Christian born in South Africa, leads the Tampa-based Revival Ministries International. During a sermon at River Tampa Church on Monday, Howard-Browne encouraged his followers to shake hands despite the coronavirus outbreak, which has claimed four lives in Florida so far.
‘We are not stopping anything,” Pastor Rodney Howard-Browne stated on Monday.
‘I’ve got news for you, this church will never close. ‘The only time the church will close is when the Rapture is taking place.
‘This Bible school is open because we’re raising up revivalists, not pansies.’
According to Newsweek, Pastor Howard-Browne, a South African-born US citizen who first arrived in the United States as a missionary in 1987, told his followers;
‘Well I know they don’t want us to do this, but just turn around and greet two, three people,’ he said.
‘Tell them you love them, Jesus loves them.’
‘Listen, this has to be the safest place,’ he said during the sermon.
‘If you cannot be saved in church, you in serious trouble.’